Nor is the ASO yet back to where it was four years ago, according to Laufer: “We still have a much smaller string section than we need. Some sections of brass and woodwinds are quite thin. And compensation took a big cut from what we need in order to be competitive. We still have a shortened season, with 10 weeks of furlough.”

However, even Laufer agreed that there is “an enormous difference” in the mood of the musicians since the lockout days. Without exception, everyone I spoke with — musicians, administration, board members, and fans — expressed the sentiment that things are looking up. There is even gossip, once again, about a new concert hall.

James L. Paulk is a freelance music critic based in the Hudson Valley and in New York City. During the past seven years, he wrote regularly for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Year in Review: For the Atlanta Symphony, it was a year divided and a time to assess the future January 2, 2015By Mark Gresham

For Atlanta’s classical music scene, the latter part of 2014 was dominated by the nine-week lockout of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians by the Woodruff Arts Center. The second lockout in two years, it proved a rocky time for the orchestra’s musicians and a critical point in the history of Atlanta’s classical music community, closely observed and reported upon by local, national and international media. It also became a hot topic on the internet in both the blogosphere and across social media.

It was a critical point not simply because of the locally unprecedented degree of conflict between arts labor and governance, and the all-too-tangible human toll it has taken; nor for the deeply debatable tensions between artistic excellence and financial restraint, which are ever ongoing. Rather, it was a significant signpost at a crossroads of thinking about how the city’s arts should move forward: whether to continue putting more and more cultural eggs in a singular, centralized institutional basket or to pursue instead a kind of balkanization by which the fate of the city’s major artistic exponents is no longer so firmly held in one fist. How that thinking will manifest remains uncertain as the new year begins with those challenges looming.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra struggles during second lockout in two years | October, 8 2014 by Geoff Edgers

ATLANTA -- The cellist, who has barely slept, searches his laptop for a secret recording of a former symphony executive. The clarinetist is gone, joining two other musicians now playing in the New York Philharmonic. And the percussionist, who practiced all summer for a star turn that may never come, spent a recent morning packing bottles at a local brewery. He got $45 and, he adds, a case of ale.

This is life during a lockout, as members of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra battle on two fronts: one for their collective future as a respected institution and the other for their families, who must make do without weekly paychecks and health insurance.

“I worry so much,” says violinist Denise Smith, a 30-year veteran of the ASO standing in a picket line outside the Woodruff Arts Center this week. “I know people are hurting. We have new players who have just moved here, who have moving expenses and student loans, and I don’t know how they’re paying for it.”

Symphony labor battles have become increasingly common, with recent conflicts in Minnesota, Chicago and at the Metropolitan Opera. What’s special about Atlanta’s dispute is that it’s the second lockout in two years. The Woodruff Arts Center, which oversees the ASO, demanded and received $5.2 million in cuts in 2012, which included reducing the orchestra’s season to 41 weeks from 52. Stanley Romanstein, the ASO’s president, assured the players that would never happen again. But Romanstein resigned last month, and the Woodruff leaders say that they were not aware of any such promise.

Analysis: The core of the ASO lockout is whether Atlanta will support a world-class orchestra | October 15, 2014By James L. Paulk

Could we lose the orchestra altogether, as happened in Miami and Honolulu in recent years? Of course we could. These things always seem impossible until they happen. There is a cascading effect flowing from the lockout. We are losing subscribers. Donors are angry. The crisis feeds on itself.

The people on the orchestra’s board are good and dedicated people. Among them are some of the orchestra’s biggest donors. The same is true of the Woodruff Arts Center board. The essential problem comes down to money.

A lot has been said about the ostensibly low percentage of the ASO’s budget that goes for salaries compared to other orchestras. My feeling is that we are not seeing an apples-to-apples comparison. There is an unfortunate lack of transparency regarding the ASO’s financial data. It is merged into the WAC’s Form 990 reports, and the way budget data is reported seems confusing.

To be fair, there is no indication that the size or compensation of ASO’s administration are out of line with those of its peers. Rather, it is likely that the cash flow from the ASO’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre makes the total budget number larger than that of cities with similar orchestra payrolls.

No amount of finger-pointing will solve this problem. If Atlanta wants to retain its amazing orchestra, the glory of the Southeast, it must come up with the money. No major performing arts organization can exist without a large portion of its budget coming from contributions.

The lion’s share usually comes from corporations and foundations. Study an ASO program from last season, or go to the Atlanta Symphony website and click on “Giving,” then “Sponsorship and Grants.” The only three companies giving $250,000 or more are Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and Delta. Now think of all the big Atlanta-based corporations that are missing. Some do appear further down the page, of course, but this is the time for them to step up. SunTrust, Equifax, NCR, Home Depot and UPS are clocking in at less than $100,000. Georgia-Pacific isn’t even listed.

I’m not necessarily trying to shame anyone here. Better to see this as an opportunity for these civic-minded companies to come to the rescue of this vital institution in their home town. It’s the right thing to do, and they would earn the appreciation of everyone. I assume there is also an opportunity for renaming Symphony Hall.

And where is the government support? Public funds seem to be available whenever there is a massive sports facility to be built, but very little is apportioned to supporting the arts.

There is roughly a $2 million difference in what management says would make the ASO sustainable financially and what the musicians say is required to avoid further damage to the orchestra. The divide is not that wide. This is a city that came together for the Olympics. Fewer than 10 years ago, we were discussing a $300 million Calatrava-designed hall for this same orchestra.

Can we rekindle just a little bit of that kind of spirit and rally once again to protect the city’s crowning artistic achievement?

What is needed are some serious multiyear commitments from companies, foundations, government and individuals in a position to save this priceless asset for Atlanta. If we continue to let it drift away, we will never get back what we had.

When I was in college, the saying was: “if you give a party, you gotta pay the band.” Time is not on our side here.

ASO’s federal mediation stalled after just two days of negotiationOctober 16, 2014By Jenny Jarvie

Federal mediation in the bitter labor dispute between Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s management and musicians appears to have stalled after only two days of negotiations last week.

The musicians — who have been locked out of symphony facilities almost six weeks without pay — vented their frustration with management yesterday evening in a letter to the ASO’s board of directors. They said the federal mediation process was halted last Thursday after only two days of meetings when representatives of the orchestra’s parent organization, the Woodruff Arts Center, said they had to consult its governing board for further guidance and instruction.

WAC spokesman Randy Donaldson has not responded to a request for comment.

After waiting a week for negotiations to resume, the musicians said that federal mediator Allison Beck — acting director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service — informed them there would be no further meetings this week. Beck will be away for a week beginning today. Her colleague, Richard Giacolone, will remain available in the event that WAC’s negotiators — including legal counsel Tom Kilpatrick of Alston & Bird and WAC president and CEO Virginia Hepner — return to the table to work out a potential settlement.

The federal mediation process requires that neither side speaks to the media. In their email to the ASO board, the musicians called WAC’s actions “disappointing.” The musicians said that after clearing their schedules, and even turning down offers of work in the hope of resolving the dispute, they continue to wait for WAC to “stop wasting precious time.”

“The damage already wrought by the WAC — the very institution entrusted with the stewardship of Atlanta’s cultural pride — will take years to reverse,” the musicians warned the ASO board. “But it can be reversed, and must be.”

While I was in London, I missed a curious tidbit from the labor dispute between the musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO), and the management of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) who have locked them out.

In brief, the musicians had raised questions about the actions of WAC Chairman Doug Hertz while he was serving on the Board of Administrators for Tulane University. The musicians noted that Hertz was involved in a series of controversial cost-cutting actions directed against Tulane’s tenured faculty, and compared these actions with his similar cost-cutting plans at the ASO.

The curious point is that WAC President Virginia Hepner gave a strongly-worded defense of Hertz’s actions, as well as the actions of the WAC as a whole.

Her full quote reads:

The protracted financial challenges at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are very serious and threaten the health of the entire Woodruff Arts Center. The ASO has had 12 years of accumulated deficits, a severe reduction in its endowment and an annual operating gap that we cannot afford to continue. Over the last eight months, ou team has proposed many potential scenarios to the musicians in an attempt to find a solution to the problem. We continue to ask the musicians for constructive ideas to help us address these challenges and we are frustrated that they have turned a deaf ear to the situation. We are saddened that they are attempting to disparage the reputation of Doug Hertz, our chairman. He is widely recognized as one of the most successful and generous leaders in Atlanta and we feel extremely fortunate to have his ongoing support at The Woodruff Arts Center. Our fervent hope is that a federal mediator will bring calm to the protests, picketing and petitions and get us back to meaningful progress at the negotiating table.

I take great issue with this statement, and want to post a quick rebuttal.

Statement 5: The Grand Finale. The most jaw-dropping statement of all also came from Hepner, who stated: “The national musicians’ union believes it can divide and conquer and then intimidate our boards into imprudent decisions through its acrimony and misrepresentations. This has been their go-to tactic in labor negotiations for decades. We will not give in to those efforts.”

In truth, I could devote an entire blog entry to these three sentences. They reveal a profound lack of understanding about… well, not to be snarky, but about the real world in which we all live.

What national union is she referring to? Who is in it? Who runs it? Where is it located? What specifically is it doing? What is its plan? How is it implementing its strategy? How does it enforce compliance? How does it retaliate, if crossed?

And what evidence does she have?

I mean, this is as absurd as claiming that the Freemasons and Illuminati are running the Vatican.

But she goes on to mention that this national cabal of shadowy agents is trying to “divide,” “conquer,” and “intimidate” boards everywhere.

But… the boards ultimately have all the power. The WAC board is locking out the musicians, not the other way around. The musicians are going without pay or insurance… how are any of the board members affected in any way? How are these titans of industry intimidated by anything? And how on earth are they about to be “conquered?” They are going through work and life untouched by this lockout. Are they upset about unfavorable coverage in the press? Or the fact that bloggers such as myself are challenging their statements? Good heavens… I’m astonished such powerful community leaders are so fragile. Do they get this flustered in their business dealings, too? Has none of them ever experienced bad publicity?

My sense is that if there are any divisions among the board members, they have happened because some individuals are taking a longer, more holistic view of the situation than others. They’ve come to the conclusion that the WAC board’s actions are dangerous, counter-productive, and short-sighted.

But since everyone knows each other, why don’t you ask them, rather than making grandiose statements that don’t make sense?

And I’m curious as to where Hepner finds evidence that unionized musicians have brutalizing poor, unfortunate boards “for decades.” I mean, is that what happened two years ago when the WAC board previously locked out the ASO musicians? I’m sorry, but the trend for the last decade has been for orchestra boards to unilaterally lockout musicians to force sacrificial cuts in pay and other compensation. Not the other way around.

Ms. Hepner, if you know of a single case where an orchestral union (or any union, for that matter) brutally forced concessions from a board of directors, please let me know.

* * *

I could go on, but I think you get the point. I’m stunned by the rank amateurism being displayed here. And I can’t say I’m looking forward to reading the full statement the WAC has just posted….

Yesterday (in part 1 of this blog entry) I noted that the negotiations between the locked out musicians of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and the management of the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) hit a rough patch; shortly thereafter the two sides had begun making statements in the press. My main point was that the WAC’s statements were, to be honest, bizarre, and they did not inspire trust in the WAC’s ability to manage the situation.

Well… I’m disappointed to report that things only got worse.

While I was posting my blog entry, I learned that the WAC had posted a full-blown summary of its position. I didn’t want to delay my previous post, or make it any longer than it already was, so I held off on commenting about this much fuller statement.

How to Cut $5 Million from the ASO Budget in One Easy Step | by Robbie Reports

It took an open records request and a comparison of numbers across four different sources, but it appears that I have finally found out how much the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre (VWA) costs the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO). I have mentioned before that the financial statements available from the Woodruff Arts Center (WAC) are not clear enough to tease out the real costs related to the various activities of the ASO. I pointed out that the funding model used for the VWA broke from the approaches used for other capital development projects that the WAC has undertaken and that it has resulted in a large financial burden for the ASO. I have also already discussed the fact that there seem to be conflicts of interest among many on the WAC’s Board of Governors when it comes to the VWA and that these conflicts of interest may be preventing them from putting the ASO’s interests first when it comes to decisions relating to that property.

The Woodruff Arts Center leadership has repeatedly stated that the ASO has been running deficits for the past 12 years. That coincides with the WAC’s incorporation of what appears to be a shell company, Encore Park for the Arts, and purchasing the land for the VWA from one of its board member’s companies, Cousins Properties. In 2007, when the WAC issued the bonds for the VWA project, they held a credit rating of AA3 from Moody’s. Since then, their bond ratings have been downgraded twice and, just last year, Moody’s issued a statement downgrading the WAC’s outlook, suggesting that another downgrade is likely. The principal reasons given for this are the ASO’s accumulated deficits and the WAC’s accumulated debt. It is hard to imagine that the debt from the VWA is not related to this — indeed, that is likely part of the reason why the WAC leadership retired that debt early rather than fund ASO operations. But what about the costs of running the venue? Does it pay for itself or is it a liability? If you have been following the reports around this lockout or the one in 2012 then you probably have heard mutterings about the VWA being the real source of the ASO’s financial shortfall. Is this true?

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra lockout is nearing the end of its second month. It is now plain that the dispute is over a single issue: orchestra complement. The musicians want the collective bargaining agreement to specify a minimum number of musicians – just like every other full-time professional orchestra in the country – and considering how many musicians left since the complement was cut in the 2012 lockout, the musicians want to see modest increases in that number over the next several years. The ASO – or, more accurately, its parent organization the Woodruff Arts Center – is willing to guarantee only that current musicians won’t lose their jobs, and promises only to use “best efforts” to raise funds to pay for additional positions if the ASO “can afford to do so.”

The bargaining situation is fluid right now. It is unclear whether the ASO/WAC is still demanding, as it has throughout the current lockout, the authority to unilaterally decide whether to fill vacant positions going forward. If so, then it is difficult to see any path to an agreement. As I have noted before, if management retains discretion as to whether or not to fill positions, then management is unilaterally determining how many full-time musicians are in the orchestra. Long-term, management can shrink the group to whatever size it wants. That’s union busting; and if implemented, would be a death warrant for the ASO and a dangerous precedent for the industry. There is simply no way the Atlanta musicians – or any group of musicians, for that matter – can agree to such an arrangement.

But let’s assume for the sake of argument that this is not the case, and that the issue right now is not whether to have a fixed complement, but what size the complement should be. Contrary to right-wing fantasies, the purpose of a higher complement is not to secure “cushy union jobs”; rather, a healthy complement is vital to the success of any symphony orchestra. There are many reasons for that, but I want to focus on three: sound, quality, and health.